Our midfield - best in the league

[Fox92]

2 minutes ago, bovril said:

I think Tielemans has been great this season, but has flown under the radar a bit. He's already got 34 caps for one of the best international sides in the World so I think "world class" is a slight exaggeration but isn't stretching it that much.

I just posted in Youri's thread, if he wasn't playing we'd notice it. Such a great influence on the side. And so many international caps and European club appearances at such a young age.

[SheppyFox]

3 minutes ago, Bryn said:

No. Leeds have the best everything in the league.

 

[Stadt]

Jesus Christ  

 

As good as we were, Spurs were completely awful yesterday. If we played performances like that all season yeah we’d win the league but the unfortunate reality is we can’t break down even poor defences at home. We had 4 shots and 0 on target against West Ham in a 3-0 defeat. 

Injuries have played a part but they’re too easily used to explain away structural problems we have. Foxestalk is completely schizophrenic collectively. 

 

[bovril]

2 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Jesus Christ  

 

As good as we were, Spurs were completely awful yesterday. If we played performances like that all season yeah we’d win the league but the unfortunate reality is we can’t break down even poor defences at home. We had 4 shots and 0 on target against West Ham in a 3-0 defeat. 

Injuries have played a part but they’re too easily used to explain away structural problems we have. Foxestalk is completely schizophrenic collectively. 

 

You luv it though.

 

The massive overreactions to home defeats make the "we're the best midfield in the league' post-win threads even sweeter. Such is being a football fan.

[Cameron Davidson]

Lose to West Brom, and they will be all ordered by the forum to leave the club for not being good enough.

[st albans fox]

43 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

We live in a society where everything has to be "the best" or "the worst" whereas the truth is often found somewhere in between.

here you are again with your sense spouting nonsense ……..

[Ceirboy]

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

Saying Maddison is on the verge of being world class is a bit of a stretch imho

Maddison isn't even one of the best in this country, never mind the world!

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Let's see how we get on Boxing Day and then revisit this thread shall we.

[Guest Col city fan]

I’ve said this about Tielemans countless times

Give him time and space, I’d not swap him for anyone. His reading of our forward runs reminds me a bit of Steve Thompson (going back years there)

 

BUT, stamp on him (metaphorically) and he wilters. We know this, we’ve seen it countless times. Having a fit Wilf by his side makes a massive difference (as it does having that fella with him in the Belgian team (name escapes me))

 

Tielemans needs a shield. Provide him with one, he’s world class imo 

[Jobyfox]

No. Our midfield is miles away from being the best in the league.

 

I’d actually say that, if we ever get them all fit, our defence might actually be close to being one of the best in the league: imagine Castagne, Soyuncu, Evans and Ricardo with Fofana and Justin as options. 

[martyn]

Ndidi is world class/borderline world class in his position. Keeps his quality of distribution up as he has since returning he is undoubtedly world class.

 

Tielemans is more advanced than Maddison, but both have too many flaws in their game to consider them world class. Maddison isn't above good premier league player level right now.

 

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, NaijaFox said:

Not Spurs. Their wide midfielders are bang average.

Depends who you class as their wide players, Son, Lucas, Bergwijn and Bale (Jury out on whether he's the same player).

 

Are better then Barnes, Perez, Under and Albrighton for me.

[NaijaFox]

7 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Depends who you class as their wide players, Son, Lucas, Bergwijn and Bale (Jury out on whether he's the same player).

 

Are better then Barnes, Perez, Under and Albrighton for me.

Son (despite wearing the traditional wide right #7) is a striker/support striker, rather than a wide midfielder.

Bergwin (known as "Fat Berg" by Spurs fans) and Lucas (who hasn't done much since that CL campaign) are underperforming.

Bale, who has hardly played much football in the past two years is not the Bale of yester (still puts in a shift for Wales though).

 

Edited 21 December 2020 by NaijaFox

[Lichfieldfox.]

and next thread up could be our defence is the best in the league (now our players are returning from injury).......on the back of 1 clean sheet

We have a very good squad, great manager, lots of players who are still developing but lets not kid ourselves we have very few truly world class players (in my opinion just Vardy and possibly Ndidi). Several who have potential to get a lot better Cags, little Wes, Youri, Barnes, Madders, Castagne and Ricardo but currently far from world class.

Lets stay grounded and enjoys the highs and lows whist Brendan builds us a sustainable team capable of annual top 6 and european football. 

[Lambert09]

2 hours ago, Blanchflower78 said:

Its interesting how these threads only appear on the back of a win...

This! Last week we had a thread about how we lack a lee cattermole in midfield 

[coolhandfox]

6 minutes ago, NaijaFox said:

Son (despite wearing the traditional wide right #7) is a striker/support striker, rather than a wide midfielder.

Bergwin (known as "Fat Berg" by Spurs fans) and Lucas (who hasn't done much since that CL campaign) are underperforming.

Bale, who has hardly played much football in the past two years is not the Bale of yester (still puts in a shift for Wales though).

 

On Son, www.transfermarkt.co.uk has him down as play as follow, so according to them he has play more as a wide midfielder.

 

Played as...
Left Winger	182	73	34
Centre-Forward	88	41	18
Second Striker	57	18	10

 

Lucas has a decent PL record of 15 goals and 6 assists (85 games) compared to Barnes has with 10 goals and 11 assist (68 games).

 

Bale, like Under only time will tell.

 

Weren't we interested in Bergwin before he went to Spurs, pretty sure BR would have him here over Albrighton and Perez.

 

Football is all about opinions. 

 

[NaijaFox]

2 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Football is all about opinions. 

 

On that, no disagreement.

On the others, agree to disagree.

Edited 21 December 2020 by NaijaFox

[murphy]

Only last week our midfield, albeit without Wilf, got dominated by Everton's.

 

 

We've got the best striker in the league though. 

[murphy]

2 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

We live in a society where everything has to be "the best" or "the worst" whereas the truth is often found somewhere in between.

 

That's the worst post I've ever seen.

[honeybradger]

Imo we're up there for best defence in the league on paper when everyone's fully fit, midfield i think maddison and tielemans need to step up to the next level for that to be the case, we have a better midfield than chelsea, spurs and man city though (yes man city because rodri cant play as a lone DM which forces them to play 2 DMs so there's effectively no creativity there). Man united and liverpool's midfield are a fair bit ahead of ours though. Our attack is the weakest point in the team, we really need Under to step up into that rw role and Barnes to get back to getting goals and assists.

[brookfox]

2 hours ago, Bryn said:

No. Liverpool have the best everything in the league.

Except the training ground!

[brookfox]

Think it’s been pretty clear recently that we lack a backup Ndidi. The archetypal 6ft+ DM who can shield the back 4, retrieve possession and lay it off to someone else who can play a bit. On paper it’s Mendy or Hamza but neither quite fit the profile (obvious height comparisons aside!).

[Jon the Hat]

We should win a few more home games before we start talking about being best of anything in the league..

[Sampson]

Not at all.

We have some good players, but one of our biggest problems is we don't have midfielders who can take games by the scruff of the neck and win them like De Bruyne or Fernandes can.

The likes of Maddison, Barnes and Tielemans need to much more in that regard before they can be considered amongst the best in the league.

[Guest Col city fan]

9 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Not at all.

We have some good players, but one of our biggest problems is we don't have midfielders who can take games by the scruff of the neck and win them like De Bruyne or Fernandes can.

The likes of Maddison, Barnes and Tielemans need to much more in that regard before they can be considered amongst the best in the league.

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